The editor of USA Today resigned abruptly last night after revelations that a star reporter had fabricated parts of at least eight stories.

Karen Jurgensen quit the prominent daily - one of only a handful of American newspapers with a truly national reach - saying she hoped staff had learned lessons from the episode.

The former reporter Jack Kelley is said to have made up substantial portions of at least eight big stories, lifted dozens of quotes or other material from rival publications, and gone to elaborate lengths to mislead an investigation into his work. He resigned in January.

The scandal is reminiscent of the Jayson Blair case at the New York Times, in which the junior reporter was found to have invented parts of dozens of stories. Blair's exposure cost the then editor, Howell Raines, his job.

In an email to staff, Ms Jurgensen, who had been the newspaper's editor since 1999, said: "Like all of us who worked with Jack Kelley, I wish we had caught him far sooner than we did."